The following biographical sketch is adapted from
the "News of the Church: Elder Lynn A. Sorensen of the First Quorum of
the Seventy" published in the Ensign for May 1987 on the occasion
of Elder Sorensen's call to the First Quorum of the Seventy.
Elder Lynn A. Sorensen, newly called to the First Quorum
of the Seventy, served his first mission in Brazil beginning in 1940, when
the Brazilian Mission was in its fifth year. He returned as president of
the Brazil-Porto Alegre Mission in 1973, and again in 1982 as director
for temporal affairs.
“I also spent four years as International Materials
Management manager for Latin America,” he pointed out, “visiting all six
area offices in those countries at least twice a year on training and auditing
assignments.”
Elder Sorensen, who is now sixty-seven, was called
as patriarch of the Wilford Stake last December, and his new calling to
serve as a General Authority just four months later took him by surprise.
“I was greatly humbled by the call to be a patriarch,”
he recalled. “But there just aren’t words to express how it felt when President
Thomas S. Monson of the First Presidency issued
the call to the First Quorum of the Seventy. It overwhelmed me.
“After the call was announced in conference, we were
greeted very warmly by the ecclesiastical leaders from Brazil,” he said.
“Their expressions of joy and delight in our call brought tears to our
eyes.”
Elder Sorensen expressed his belief that the biggest
challenge to the Church in Brazil is training ecclesiastical leaders, because
of the rapid growth in the number of members. “They’re baptizing over two
thousand converts a month in those missions, which is almost a stake a
month. Many of those good men called as bishops and stake presidents have
only been in the Church two and three years.”
A significant turning point in Brother Sorensen’s
life, from a spiritual standpoint, came during his first mission to Brazil.
“I had an academic and athletic scholarship to the University of Chicago
and spent my freshman and sophomore years there,” Elder
Sorensen said. “I’d always planned on a mission, but after two years
at college, a mission didn’t seem all that important. I told my parents
I’d like to finish my schooling. Fortunately, I had a very kind and understanding
bishop, and special parents who just loved me and prayed for me. When it
came time for me to go back to school in the fall, the Lord answered their
prayers. I accepted the call and went on my mission.
“It wasn’t very long after I arrived in the mission
field and began studying the scriptures regularly that my testimony really
grew and developed. From then on it has never wavered, but has just continued
to grow stronger. I’m grateful to the Lord for guiding me at that very
important crossroad.”
Elder Sorensen has served as bishop of the Kenwood
Second Ward, on stake high councils, and as a member of several general
Church boards.
He worked in management positions in the electronics
industry and as general manager of Deseret Press before becoming affiliated
with Church administration in what was then the Internal Communications
Department. He also served as executive secretary of the International
Mission for four years.
“My most rewarding experience was as mission president,”
he said. “I never worked harder, put in more hours, or had more problems
or concerns, yet there was never a time when I had sweeter or more satisfying
experiences.”
Elder Sorensen was born in Salt Lake City on 25 September
1919. After returning from his mission in Brazil, he served as an instructor
in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, then graduated with honors from
the University of Utah. He married the former Janet Weech in 1943. They
are the parents of nine children and have twenty-six grandchildren.
Elder Sorensen served but two years of his five-year
call to the First Quorum of the Seventy before being called to the Second
Quorum of the Seventy on April 1, 1989. Faithfully completing his call
as a General Authority, he was honorable released from the Second Quorum
on October 3, 1992.
